GRAND RAPIDS — Carolyn Stewart is mom on a mission after her son was shot Saturday afternoon in a Southeast side neighborhood, apparently while coming to the aid of his best friend, who was killed.

“We're coming for him,” said Stewart, 43, whose son Martin Luther Broyles, 17, is in critical condition at St. Mary’s Hospital after being shot in the head. “I’m not going to rest until this killer is in jail.”

Doctors still have not removed the bullet from Broyles upper back, where it lodged after traveling south down his face from entering near his eye, breaking his jaw and bypassing the vital organs in his neck. He’s still in critical condition, Stewart said.

Grand Rapids Police have expressed frustration at the lack of witnesses coming forth in the shooting, which happened about 2:50 p.m. Saturday in an alleyway near the 1000 block of Union Avenue SE, between Delaware Street and Howard Street.

Jamauri Michael Long, 17, was pronounced dead on the scene of the city’s first homicide of 2011. Long and Broyles are childhood friends and lived near each other in a neighborhood that Stewart says is troubled by gang activity.

Police on the scene said there may have been two other people in the alleyway with the victims when gunfire broke out. Both fled the scene and police had not taken anyone into custody by Saturday night.

Police were not able to find any witnesses, only people who heard the gunfire. Broyles uncle, Robert S. Womack, said the young people in the neighborhood have “a code of silence,” and many automatically distrust and refuse to speak to police.

“They know who did it,” he said. “They know all the individuals involved.”

Womack said more than 50 people from the neighborhood who knew Long and Broyles came to visit Broyles in the hospital by Saturday evening. He and Stewart implored them to speak to police.

“Don’t take vengeance into your own hands,” he said. “Let the police bring an end to this.”

Womack, a local radio personality, will be on Pulse of the City radio program on WYGR-AM (1530) in Wyoming tomorrow from 2 to 6 p.m., discussing the incident.

Stewart said family and friends in the neighborhood are networking to track down leads that may help police. “Somebody had to see something — somebody walking. We're looking for tips. Anything.”

She believes Long was targeted specifically. She did not believe he was involved in a gang, but growing up on one side of the neighborhood or another can be enough to make you a target.

“I believe they came after Jamauri because of where he lived,” she said.

Broyles has been in and out of consciousness at the hospital, Stewart said. He is hooked to a ventilator to help with breathing. She said he was able to provide police with a partial description while conscious at one point. She’s confident the killer will eventually be apprehended.

“He shot Martin in the head, but God had a different plan,” she said. “He thought he’d executed two people, but he didn’t. My son knows what he looks like.”

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Grand Rapids Police at 616-456-3604 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.